Posted on 08/13/2006 4:11:37 PM PDT by blam
Sleep with Neanderthals? Apparently we (homo Sapiens) did
By Faye Flam
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Though it's been 150 years since mysteriously humanlike bones first turned up in Germany's Neander Valley, the find continues to shake our collective sense of human identity.
Neanderthals are humanity's closest relatives, with brains at least as big as ours, and yet we don't know whether we should include them as members of our own species.
No longer does science consider them our direct ancestors but some suspect Neanderthals and modern homo Sapiens interbred during the 20,000 some-odd years we co-existed in Europe. The archaeological record doesn't tell us one way or another, but earlier, researchers announced they would seek more clues by scraping DNA from Neanderthal bones and teeth.
The question of sex with Neanderthals speaks to our understanding of ourselves, our origins and our uniqueness. If this other type of human being wasn't like us, what was he like?
As I started researching this issue, I found myself staring at a picture of a nude Neanderthal man — a forensic sculpture created by Duke University paleoanthropologist Steve Churchill that was published last year in the journal Science. The model, based on a skeleton found at La Ferrassie in France, is mesmerizing in its combination of familiarity and alienness.
To be honest, he's really not half bad looking. He's got a good, muscular body, and while he's nobody's idea of handsome, that could be forgiven if he had a nice personality or I was starving and he offered to throw some rhino steaks on the fire for me.
We're not talking about the stoop-shouldered, hairy, apelike Neanderthal of popular culture. There's no evidence they were hairier than modern people, says anthropologist Harold Dibble, a curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
PS. And of course, above all else, you have to have interbreeding as a genetic possibility in the first place, and let's not lose sight of the fact that half a billion years of evolution separated Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals.
At least mine where only typos.
W.K.
Snicker! Thanks, Dr. 'Sceince'.
Here we see the Neanderthal genes happily asserting themselves
in Sapien culture. Cane and Abel were not the final word on the topic.
Yes, those caves in the Levant are especially intriguing, because it appears that modern humans moved in, displacing Neanderthal, then moved back out, whereupon Neanderthal moved back in, and then modern humans returned with Neanderthal vanishing for good. The best conjecture I've seen is that climate changes accounted for the migrations of the hominid populations.
Abel.
Actually, if you've been following the news or read history (WWII comes to mind), you'll see that our species is capable of things that a monkey would never do.
I took them as an indicator of ignorance. It just goes to show.
That was exactly MY thought! I guess no one else got the reference. I really enjoyed Jean Auel's books in that series - and she did an enormous amount of reasearch into early man. IIRC, her hypothesis of why the Neanderthals' demise had to do with the size and shape of their heads becoming incompatible with the birth canals. Interesting theory.
Bonobos rock...How can anyone knock an existence that consists basically of one life-long orgy.
"let's not lose sight of the fact that half a billion years of evolution separated Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals."
*chuckle*
First, I don't wear knickers (interesting choice of words though). I am quite relaxed, listening to a little music, sipping a nice glass of merlot; and lurking on FR. What makes you think otherwise?
W.K.
I am an archaeologist and I must diagree from a professional viewpoint. While my specialty is eastern native American ethnobotany, not neaderthals. I believe the jury is still out on the subject. The DNA studies from what I have read on the subject have been far to small to be a definitive sample.
"half a billion years of evolution separated Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals." - What a load of bollocks. There is barely half a billion between a Cro-Magnon and Blue-Green algae.
I don't due platitudes; I simply made a statement concerning the theory of evolution being unable to pass the test of the scientific method. My only issue is that, to date, no one can edify with a theory of evolution that does pass the test of the scientific method. So you see my quandry, if you have one, please educate me. I know you will keep it simple for someone like me, how did you put it - spouts nonsense and needs to grow up.
W.K.
We may have a bit of that in us, yes.
That'd be me and my youngest son Daniel.
The bones are thicker, the musculature a bit more heavy.
We're nice folks.
being neither HUMBAN nor SCINETIST, i cannot comment. i might suggest, however, that you commune with your brethren and go see "the ant bully."
You suspect incorrectly.
W.K.
i don't follow the news, nor do i read the internet.
This was not a statement of assertion but a supposition; nor was it blatant; note the operative words "may be". So your are actually incorrect in your assumption. Have a good evening.
Ah -- please show me where the words "may be" are in your post (above).
Did you think they would magically appear? Your blatant assertion is just that.
I would suggest you not prevaricate when it is so easy to get the evidence.
Oh, and let me help you! "sceince" is spelled science.
(enjoying your shoe-leather?)
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